This invention relates to a variable speed balance or teeter board for improving the balance of the user and for use as an exercising device.
A balance board generally comprises a platform having a fulcrum member connected to the bottom portion thereof, and serving as the fulcrum point for tilting movement of the platform. In use, the board is placed on a supporting surface, fulcrum side down. The user then mounts the platform in a standing or sitting position, or on hands or knees, and attempts to distribute his weight in such a manner that the platform does not tilt, but remains in a horizontal plane. This requires the user to exert equal effective pressure on opposite sides of the fulcrum member, since the effective pressure applied is the resultant, not only of the actual pressure applied by the parts of the body in contact with the board, but also of the distance of the contact points of the body from the fulcrum point, which changes the leverage effect.
Boards of this general type have also been in use as exercise devices for many years, and examples of such devices are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,803,461 issued Aug. 20, 1957 and 3,984,100 issued Oct. 5, 1976. U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,021 issued Mar. 6, 1962 discloses an exercise device including a platform supported by a ball, an elastic member being interposed between the platform and ball, so that the ball will tend to roll in any direction in which the weight of the user is shifted from the centered line of the ball. The elastic member tends to flex as the weight of the user is shifted, with the result that considerable skill is required to remain on the platform.
United Kingdom Pat. No. 1,372,342, published Oct. 3, 1974, discloses an exercising device of the balance board type, including a platform supported by a base, and having a coil spring interposed between the base and platform which provides a controlled resistance to rocking movement of the platform in any direction.
Although known devices of the balance board type for exercising or improving balance are useful for the average individual having little or no physical problems, they cannot be used by certain classes of persons having physical limitations. These include the handicapped, the retarded, physical rehabilitation patients, the elderly and any others who are not possessed of the requisite balance skills necessary for conventional balance and exercise boards.